Helanie:
"Say that again," Maximus said. I’ve told them everything my mother told me. In response, I just watched their faces change color.
"I belong to Arthendel." I repeated myself exactly the way my mother did.
"No. You belong to your mates," Maximus hissed, and Norman gave him a look, warning him not to pressure me.
"Helanie, it’s all fine and good," Norman said. "Like, we support that. And we sympathize with your mother. But we’re not going to let you go away." Norman had finally made up his mind, and I sighed. Things had been so rough between me and my mates. After everything that happened, I hadn’t had time alone with Maximus, Norman, or Kaye, or any of them. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
"You sympathize with my mother? There should be more than just sympathy," I said, looking at Norman.
"Your mother also did a lot of shit to our mother," Kaye said. It was the first time he had spoken since the cruise ship. His words were pretty harsh, even Norman gave him a look.
"No, it’s okay. Let him speak. I want to know what he thinks," I said, gesturing at Norman to not stop him.
"All I’m saying is, we don’t know who’s telling the truth. But we do know what we saw. And we saw your mother torture our mother every single day. My mother was losing babies. She went through countless abortions in front of us," Kaye hissed, pointing at me, then at the door, as if he were pointing at my mother.
"It’s true. I was once hiding under the table, and I heard your mother threaten mine, and almost admit that she might be the reason my mother was having miscarriages," Norman corrected gently. I began to gulp and take shallow breaths.
"So what? Your mother doesn’t deserve to have babies," I hissed. They all looked at me in shock.
"Don’t look at me like that. Didn’t you hear what she did to my mother? After that, I’m not surprised my mother wanted revenge." I knew I was being cruel and cold-hearted, but what they did to my mother wasn’t nice either. His mother couldn’t just go on living a normal life and expect mine not to retaliate.
"So you’re justifying your mother killing babies?" Kaye hissed.
"All I’m saying is that my mother did all that because she was emotionally disturbed. She went through so much!" I yelled.
Kaye added, "Do you have proof?"
And my jaw dropped.
"I know my mother isn’t lying," I said.
"How? Your mother didn’t even want you for years?" Kaye uttered, almost under his breath.
"Well, we know our mother could be a liar," Kaye replied, "but we also know what your mother is capable of." Kaye was the only one speaking much. The others kept a little distance from the topic.
"Isn’t your mother the one who wanted me dead because of your curses? Doesn’t that make you think, maybe there were other curses she was fighting when she was sacrificing babies?" I retaliated, getting out of bed in anger.
"Okay, okay. Everyone calm down," Norman said, stepping in to deescalate, while Kaye glared directly into my eyes.
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